The project pipeline could help the ministry of road transport and highways to quickly catch up on its overall targets of awarding and constructing 10,000 km of national highways in 2025-26 with NHAI roughly contributing 45%-50% of total national highway projects in the country.
As per the internal document seen by ET, of these 52 projects, 18 projects have been approved, 15 projects have been appraised and will be approved shortly, six projects have been sent to the Cabinet for approval, 10 projects have been sent to the standing finance committee (SFC) for appraisal and proposal for three projects have are being readied for submission for sanction.
NHAI has set an internal target of awarding 4500 km of projects in 2025-26 and construct 5000 km in the ongoing financial year. Till date, it has awarded 43 projects totaling a length of 504.315 km and have completed construction of 2060.986 km till date.
Road secretary V Umashankar had recently said the ministry will certainly achieve the targets set for the year despite a slow start in the first half. “Till end of September we have constructed 3200 km vis-a-vis 3800 km during the same period last year and we hope to achieve the target of 10,000 km of national highways construction this year,” he had said.
NHAI’s share in total national highways construction in the country under the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is between 45% and 50%. Other players include the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), MoRTH, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the State Public Works Departments (PWD), which together constitute the remaining 50%.The national highways construction in the country slowed down in the first half of the current year as the ministry was focusing on streamlining processes to ensure quality and on-time construction. With all these issues addressed effectively, the ministry is hopeful that both awarding of projects and construction will pick up pace in the second half. Crisil Intelligence recently projected national highways construction to be 9,000-10,000 km in 2025-26 compared to an estimated 10,500-11,500 km in 2024-25, 12,349 km in 2023-24, 10,331 km in 2022-23 and 10,457 km in 2021-22.